Method of packaging beverages



Jan, 4, 1944. B. J. GARTLMID METHOD OF PACKAGING BEVERAGES 2 Sheets-sheet 1 Filed May 3, 1939 w, ill Ek Bernard dwarf/and.

lll/11111 j Jan.. 4, 1944.

Filed May 3, 1939 B. J. GARTLAND METHOD` OF PACKAGING BEVERAGES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ernazd J.' Gastland,

Patented Jan. 4, 1944 `METHOD OF PACKAGING BEVERAGES Bernard J. Gartland, Philadelphia, Pa., assigner to Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc., Baltiv more, Md., a corporation of New York Application May 3, 1939, Serial No. 271,553

4 Claims.

The present invention relates to a method of packaging beverages.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a methodfor removing air .from the head space of a receptacle containing a carbonated beverage, such as bear or 'a soft drink.

It has long been known that the presence of air in the head space of a carbonated beverage container is undesirable, vdue to the oxygen content of the air. In the bottling of beer, the presence of air in the head space has a particularly deleterious effect lbecause it causes changes in the ilavor and turbidity of the beverage.

It has heretofore. beenproposed to remove air` from the head space of containers by filling such headspace with an inert gas; for example, car- 'oon dioxide. The difficulty with the prior method is that any movement of the container, such as is normal and necessary during its passage through a lling machine, results in a substantial portion of this gas being swept out of the mouth of the container and replaced by air. To overcome that difficulty, it has been necessary to decrease the speed of movement of the bot-,- tles between the gas-inserting means and the sealing means, andk it has also been necessary to use a capping mechanism of such type that the capping heads will not descend too rapidly towardthe bottle, because even this causes some of the gas to be swept from the bottle. It will be obvious that these expedients used to prevent inserted carbon dioxide from being swept from the head space lof the bottles prevent the operation of the filling machine at a normal speed of production.

Various arrangements have also been proposed to cause the beverage to foam up into the container head space so that the air will be drivenv therefrom. One arrangement' for causing the beverage to foam has been to tap the bottle with a View of so agitating the contents that foam will rise therefrom. The. objection to this method is that since the entire contents of the container are vibrated or agitated, foam may rise from all of the liquid in the container, including the liquid at the lowest portion of the container. Such foaming is apt to become cumulative; that is, the particles of gas rising from the lower portion of the container gather other particles about them as they ascend through the liquid,

and unless all conditions are carefully regulated,v

an altogether uncontrollable foaming may result, such as will partially drain the container of its contents. Another similar method heretofore proposed has,y been `to inject a gas into ,the liquid from a nozzle submerged in the liquid. This method has also been objectionable for substantially the same reasons as referred to above with respect to tapping the container. Thatgis, foam will rise from a substantial portion of the conjtainer contents and may become uncontrollable, unless the method is very carefully supervised.

VWith both of the methods just referred to, the

foam created in the head space of the container is rather coarse; i` e., is formed of relatively large bubbles and is therefore not very stable. Furthermore, since the'bubbles are large, they will readily burst so that even if the foaming is socontrolled .that it merely completely lls `the head space, atleast some or" the bubbles may break before capping is performed, permitting the return of air to the head space.

. By the method of the present invention, a jet cfa gas is injected into the liquid in the` container `through a nozzle having a relatively small orifice, and while the mouth of the nozzle is positioned in the eXtreme upper portion of the liquid. By having the gas or other fluid under a relatively high pressure yand injecting it in a small stream, a local shock effect is given the immediately surrounding portion of the container contents so that only this portion of the liquid will foam. Because of the fact that vonly the upper portion of the liquid foams, the foam bubbles will be of extremely small size, since there is no possibility of a bubble of gas accumulating additional gas, as may occur when the gas bubble rises through a substantial4 depth of beverage. Hence the foam Willbe fine in character and extremely'stable. i i

Referring to the drawings, wherein an apparatus for performing the method of my invention is diagrammatically disclosed,

Figure l is a fragmentary plan view, partly in horizontal section, of a, filling machine equipped with mechanism for conducting the method of my invention; i i

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view on the line 2 2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3A is ra detail view showing a jet device which may be used to inject gas into a beverage, and

Figures 4 to 7 are vertical sectional views of a container showing the effect of injecting a iiuid into the container contents.

In the drawings, the numeral i0 designates a gas-injecting mechanism provided on the stationarytable li of a filling machine between the usual rotary filling table i2 and the sealing or crowning mechanism i3, sothatbottlesmoving from the filling table I2 to the sealing mechanism I3 will move through the gas-injecting mechanism i6. A continuously rotating dial I4 of a well-known construction is provided between the rotary filling table I2 and the gas-injecting mechanism Ill to remove lled and uncapped bottles from the lling table and position them upon a rotary table i5 forming part of the mechanism I0. A dial lli is included in the mechanism lil immediately above the rotary table I5 for the purpose of holding the bottles in proper alignment with the gas-injecting tubes I l'. A second transfer dial I8 is provided to remove the bottles from the gas-injecting mechanism Ill and conduct them to the crowner i3.

Referring to Figure 2, which shows the gasinjecting mechanism I@ in detail, it will be observed that this mechanism rotates with a hollow shaft 20 which surrounds a normally stationary post 2l. Post 2l has a cam casting 22 xed thereto provided with a circumierentially extending cam track The hollow shaft 2B has a housing 2d secured thereto which surrounds the cam casting 22, and a plurality of slide members 253 are vertically reciprooable in the housing 2d, each slide member being provided with a cam roller which moves along the cam track 23 of stationary cam casting 2li. A right angled bore ill is formed in each slide member 25, a horizontally extending passage of this bore being in communication with a flexible tube 28 which has its opposite end connected to a nozzle opening to a port 3S in a sleeve 3l fixed to the upper end of the housing so as to be rotatable with the latter. The sleeve 3l surrounds a manifold 32 hired to theupper end of the stationary post l. Manifold Si? is provided with a right angled passage 33 including a horizontal portion which opens to an arcuate groove 35i extending partially about the peripheral surface of the manifold. The vertical portion of passage has a tube 35 connected thereto, the opposite end of tube 35i being connected to a suitable source of an inert gas, such as carbo-n dioxide, not shown.

As best shown in Figure 2, a jet member I'I is connected tothe vertically extending portion of the passage 2l of each slide member 25. By the arrangement described above, with the housing 24 and sleeve 3l rotating about the fixed cam 22 and iixed manifold 32, the jet members Il may be moved downwardly into the mouths of containerswhen the latter are received upon the rotary table lll. At the moment that the lower end of a jet I? is positioned below the level of the liquid in the container as indicated in Figures 3 and Ll, the port il@ in sleeve il corresponding to that jet member will be in alignment with the arcuate groove 343 in manifold 32 with the result that a jet of the gas will be released in the liquid in the container.

With the ietted gas under proper pressure, a very dense and stable foam will immediately begin to rise from the immediately adjacent portion of the beverage as indicated at F in Figure 3, this foam continuing to form after the momentary jetting of gas and rising to fill the entire head space, including such area of the head space as was previously occupied the jet member l l, which will be moved upwardly immediately jetting has occurred.

Figures l to '7, inclusive, illustrate the action which results from injection of gas in accordance with the present invention. Referring to Figure 4, this view shows the ,letting nozzle Il f) nl iii) at the lowermost point in its downward movement into the liquid in the container. At this moment the mouth of the jetting member Il may be from one-fourth of an inch to one inch below the surface of the liquid in the container, depending upon the point in the liquid from which it is desired to have foaming occur. As has been indicated above, the present invention contemplates causing the gas to rise only from the upper portion of the liquid,

At the moment that the jet member I1 reaches its lowest position in the contents, a jet of carbon dioxide or other suitable gas will be projected from the nozzle, this gas being at a relatively high pressure of the nature hereinafter referred to. The jet of gas issuing from the capillary passage of the jet I1 will forcibly impinge upon the surrounding container contents and divide into relatively large bubbles B. Very fine bubbles B will immediately be formed in the liquid, due to the local shock resulting from the contact of the injected stream of gas with the liquid. It will be observed from Figure 5 that the bubbles B will only be formed within the relatively small area of the beverage with which the injected stream contacted.

'When the large bubbles B lose their downward velocity they will rise to the surface of the bevorage as shown in Figure (i and burst due to their size, but the smaller bubbles B', upon reaching the surface, will form a very stable foam within the head space of the container as indicated at F in Figure 7. As further indicate in Figure '7, no cumulative foaming will cour by the present method. rihat is, the only foam which will rise from the liquid will be that which rises from the impact receiving area of the beverage and when the immediate eect of this local shock has been dissipated, no further foaming will occur; no foam will rise at any time from areas other than the one with which the injected gas impacts; and because the bubbles l5 are extremely small, they will not increase in size as they rise. rFhat isto say, after the effect of the local shock or impact, there is caused no further foaming by continued introduction of gas, with the result that there is no continued formation of larger bubbles due to further gas introduction, the larg-er bubbles being maintained at a minimum and substantially all of the foam being the small-bubble type resulting from the impact. In fact, all of the foam created above the surface of the liquid, as shown in Figure '7, is of the small-bubble type, whereas if the introduction of gas were continued after the local shock or impact effect, there would be asubstantial amount oi large-bubble foam in the headspace. The present method is therefore sharply distinguished from all prior methods which permitted a general foaming of a bevorage.

The foam formed in accordance with the present invention will have entirely expelled all of the air from the head space by the time that the container has moved about the second transfer dial ic and beneath the crowning mechanism, s0 that the cap can be placed upon the container without trapping any air within the latter.

lThe fact that the entire head space is filled with a une and very stable foam will prevent any air from displacing the foam by reason of rapid movement of the bottle toward the capping mechanism, or even by downward movement of the capping head toward the container.

With the proper coordination of the various factors involved; i. e., the size of the passage of jet tube I1, the pressure under which the gas is injected, the duration of the injection, the depth of immersion of tube l1, the degree of carbonation and the temperature of the beverage, as Well as the volume of the head space of the container, the volume of the foam to be formed in the head space may be so closely controlled that it will completely ll the head space and yet not rise too far over the mouth of the bottle or can. It is desirable to have` the foam rise slightly above the mouth of the container as shown in Figure '7, in order that even the air in the cap will be forced therefrom as the cap is applied.

The diameter of the passage of jet l1 may range from .1/100 of an inch to LrY10@ of an inch, with gas pressure ranging from one to fteen pounds per square inch and injection periods of from Te of a second to two seconds. The depth of immersion may vary from one-quarter of an inch to one inch. However, it will be understood that these figures are merely given for purposes of example and that they may vary over wider ranges, according to the nature and temperature of the beverage and the volume of the head space to be lled with foam, and so long as the various factors are so ico-related as to produce a local shock eifect upon the beverage to cause foam to rise only from the extreme upper portion of the beverage, rather than from the entirev contents, or

from a substantial portion of the contents. The volume of carbon dioxide released from the beverage, and hence the amount of foam generated, is controlled by limiting the magnitude of the shock. This, in turn, is due to the extremely small size of the nozzle orice, the pressure of the gas, and the duration of injection.

As a specic example of the procedure followed in accordance with the invention, it has been found that a twelve ounce beer bottle of the short or stubby type containing unpasteurized beer at 38 F. will be properly foamed with a jet nozzle having a passage of 5A00 of an inch in diameter immersed to a depth of ve-eighths of an inch, using carbon dioxide gas at a pressure of two pounds per square inch, at room temperature, and injecting such gas for 1/2 of a second.

It is desirable to use a gas of the same nature as is in solution in the liquid, and since carbon dioxide is the gas present in carbonated beverages, the use of that gas is preferred. However, any tasteless, odorless and non-toxic gas may be used.

It will be understood that the terminology used in the specification is for purposes of description, and that the scope of the invention is indicated by the claims.

I claim:

1. The method of packaging beverages containing carbon dioxide gas in solution, comprising substantially lling the container with the beverage butl leaving above the surface of the beverage within the container a head space containing air, jetting a gaseous fluid against only the upper portion of the beverage, the pressure of the gas "being so high that its impact upon the beverage will impart a shock to the latter to cause it to foam in the form of small impact-created bubbles to drive air from the container head space, and terminating the jetting immediately the effect of the local impact is adequate to provide a quantity of impact-created bubbles suiilcient to fill the head space, so that the jetted gaseous iiuid malr escape and the head space will contain only small, impact-created bubbles.

2. A method as specified in claim 1 in which the mouth of the jetting nozzle is positioned below the surface of the beverage during the jetting.

3. A method as specified in claim 1 in which the jetting is continued for a period not exceeding one-half a second and in which the gas pressure is from not less than two pounds per square inch up to fteen pounds per square inch.

4. A method as specified in claim 1 in which the jetting is continued for a period not exceeding one-half a second and in which the gas pressure is not less than two pounds per square inch.

BERNARD J. GARTLAND. 

